WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.010 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.010 --> 00:00:03.860 align:middle line:84%
So I'm going to jump back and
forth between the two books.

00:00:03.860 --> 00:00:08.810 align:middle line:84%
And I'm going to read one
this poem-- the first poem

00:00:08.810 --> 00:00:14.135 align:middle line:84%
in celebration of Arizona's
victory over USC today.

00:00:14.135 --> 00:00:16.160 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.890 align:middle line:90%
Pandering, what they call it.

00:00:18.890 --> 00:00:21.590 align:middle line:84%
So I was mentioning
to some friends

00:00:21.590 --> 00:00:24.480 align:middle line:84%
earlier that when I
was in high school,

00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:26.100 align:middle line:90%
I used to play basketball.

00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:26.900 align:middle line:90%
I wasn't very good.

00:00:26.900 --> 00:00:29.150 align:middle line:84%
I used to come out here to
Arizona for basketball camp

00:00:29.150 --> 00:00:30.740 align:middle line:90%
every summer.

00:00:30.740 --> 00:00:32.070 align:middle line:90%
It didn't help much.

00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:36.560 align:middle line:84%
But [LAUGHS] I wanted to be
really good and a lot of us did.

00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.460 align:middle line:84%
And I want to dedicate this
poem to U of A basketball,

00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:42.410 align:middle line:84%
but also to the guys I
used to play basketball

00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:90%
with back in the day.

00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:48.260 align:middle line:84%
And what do you need
to in this poem.

00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:52.160 align:middle line:84%
I mentioned Grambling, that's
Grambling State University which

00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:56.870 align:middle line:84%
is an historically Black
university in Louisiana.

00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:58.400 align:middle line:84%
I mentioned the
French Quarter, it's

00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:00.450 align:middle line:84%
a neighborhood in
Louisiana, in New Orleans.

00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:01.620 align:middle line:90%
I mentioned Illuminati.

00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:04.560 align:middle line:84%
If you don't know, then
you should look them up.

00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.690 align:middle line:90%
And I mentioned Funkadelic.

00:01:06.690 --> 00:01:09.840 align:middle line:84%
Parliament-Funkadelic
is a funk group.

00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:11.220 align:middle line:90%
You should know them too.

00:01:11.220 --> 00:01:14.760 align:middle line:84%
And I think the
rest you'll get--

00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:16.660 align:middle line:84%
it's called "Practicing
Fade-aways."

00:01:16.660 --> 00:01:19.570 align:middle line:90%


00:01:19.570 --> 00:01:23.950 align:middle line:84%
On a deserted playground
in late day sun,

00:01:23.950 --> 00:01:26.680 align:middle line:90%
My palms dusted black, dribbling

00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:30.580 align:middle line:84%
A worn, leather ball behind
my back, this loneliness

00:01:30.580 --> 00:01:34.340 align:middle line:84%
Echoes from the
handball courts nearby.

00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:36.740 align:middle line:90%
Nearly all the markings--

00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:39.260 align:middle line:90%
free throw lane, sideline,

00:01:39.260 --> 00:01:42.680 align:middle line:84%
Center circle--
rubbed to nothing.

00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.190 align:middle line:84%
A crack in the Earth cuts
across the schoolyard,

00:01:46.190 --> 00:01:50.920 align:middle line:84%
Jagged as a scar on
a choir boy's cheek.

00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:52.880 align:middle line:90%
Thirty years ago,

00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:58.150 align:middle line:84%
I ran this very court with
nine other wanna-be ballers.

00:01:58.150 --> 00:01:59.110 align:middle line:90%
We'd steal

00:01:59.110 --> 00:02:01.660 align:middle line:84%
Through peeled
chain links, or hop

00:02:01.660 --> 00:02:05.560 align:middle line:84%
The gate, to get here,
our blacktop Eden.

00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:08.860 align:middle line:84%
One boy, who had a funny
pigeon-toed set shot

00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:10.810 align:middle line:84%
And a voice full
of church bells,

00:02:10.810 --> 00:02:14.640 align:middle line:84%
sang spirituals every
time he made a basket,

00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:17.220 align:middle line:84%
The other boys humming
along, laughing,

00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:21.280 align:middle line:84%
High-fives flying
down the court.

00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:23.530 align:middle line:84%
And a boy we called
"The Sandman"

00:02:23.530 --> 00:02:26.620 align:middle line:84%
For how he put you to sleep
with his shoulder fake

00:02:26.620 --> 00:02:27.700 align:middle line:90%
or dropped step,

00:02:27.700 --> 00:02:30.340 align:middle line:84%
Over six feet tall
in the tenth grade,

00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:34.780 align:middle line:84%
smooth talker with an itch
for older guys' girlfriends.

00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:38.140 align:middle line:84%
One Sunday morning, they
found him stabbed to death

00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:42.130 align:middle line:84%
Outside the Motel 6,
pockets untouched,

00:02:42.130 --> 00:02:48.480 align:middle line:84%
Bills folded neatly against
his beautiful cooling thigh.

00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:50.940 align:middle line:90%
And "Downtown" Ricky Brown,

00:02:50.940 --> 00:02:53.670 align:middle line:84%
Whose family headed
West when he was two

00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:56.310 align:middle line:84%
But still called
himself a New Yorker,

00:02:56.310 --> 00:02:59.220 align:middle line:84%
Who never pulled from
less than thirty feet out,

00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:01.680 align:middle line:84%
And could bank
shots blindfolded.

00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:04.200 align:middle line:84%
He went to Grambling,
drove himself

00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:06.720 align:middle line:84%
Crazy with conspiracy
theories and liquor,

00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:10.050 align:middle line:84%
Was last seen roaming
the French Quarter,

00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:11.700 align:middle line:90%
shoeless, babbling

00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:15.060 align:middle line:84%
About the Illuminati's
six-hundred sixty-six ways

00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:18.380 align:middle line:90%
To enslave the populace.

00:03:18.380 --> 00:03:20.900 align:middle line:90%
At sixteen, I discovered

00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:24.800 align:middle line:84%
Venice Beach, with its
thousand bodybuilders,

00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:28.040 align:middle line:84%
Roller skates, and
red thong bikinis.

00:03:28.040 --> 00:03:30.560 align:middle line:84%
I would stand on the
sidelines and watch

00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.830 align:middle line:84%
The local ballplayers,
leaping and hollering

00:03:33.830 --> 00:03:36.800 align:middle line:90%
Quicksilver giants, run and gun,

00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:40.820 align:middle line:84%
Already grown into their man
bodies, Funkadelic rising

00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:43.930 align:middle line:90%
from a boombox in the sand.

00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:49.300 align:middle line:84%
Now, all I hear are chain
nets chiming as I sink

00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:51.700 align:middle line:90%
One fade-away after another,

00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:55.780 align:middle line:84%
The backboard, the pole,
throwing a long shadow

00:03:55.780 --> 00:04:01.660 align:middle line:84%
Across the cracked
black asphalt.

00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:07.900 align:middle line:84%
What the nets want
must be this caress,

00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:10.630 align:middle line:90%
This stillness stretching

00:04:10.630 --> 00:04:13.960 align:middle line:84%
Along every avenue,
over high school

00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.149 align:middle line:84%
Gymnasiums and
deserted playgrounds,

00:04:16.149 --> 00:04:19.240 align:middle line:84%
And the ambulance drivers
drifting into naps

00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.350 align:middle line:90%
Back at the station house.

00:04:23.350 --> 00:04:27.910 align:middle line:84%
What the boys who ran
these courts wanted was

00:04:27.910 --> 00:04:30.340 align:middle line:90%
A lob pass high enough

00:04:30.340 --> 00:04:32.980 align:middle line:90%
To pull them into the sky,

00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:35.440 align:middle line:84%
Something they could
catch in both hands

00:04:35.440 --> 00:04:37.270 align:middle line:90%
And hang from,

00:04:37.270 --> 00:04:39.430 align:middle line:90%
Long enough for someone to snap

00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:43.030 align:middle line:84%
A photograph, to
hold them there,

00:04:43.030 --> 00:04:44.770 align:middle line:90%
Skybound.

00:04:44.770 --> 00:04:45.270 align:middle line:90%
Risen.

00:04:45.270 --> 00:04:48.870 align:middle line:90%


00:04:48.870 --> 00:04:52.220 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:04:52.220 --> 00:04:55.000 align:middle line:90%